In general, an electric vehicle is a vehicle that is driven by an electric motor using a high voltage battery, which is charged by connecting a charging connector of a charging station to a charging inlet of the electric vehicle. Here, when the charging connector is inserted and electrically connected to the charging inlet, power of the charging station may be supplied to the high voltage battery of the electric vehicle to charge the high voltage battery.
Meanwhile, a charging connector locking system may lock the charging connector to prevent the charging connector from being disconnected from the charging inlet, or unlock the charging connector.
For example, when the charging connector is inserted into the charging inlet, a charge controller may transmit a lock command to a main controller. When the main controller receives the lock command from the charge controller, it may control a locking device to prevent the charging connector and the charging inlet from being disconnected. Here, the locking device may set the connected state of the charging connector and the charging inlet to a locked state.
In addition, when charging is completed, the charge controller may transmit an unlock command to the main controller to allow the charging connector to be disconnected from the charging inlet. When the main controller receives the unlock command from the charge controller, it may control the locking device to disconnect the charging connector from the charging inlet. Here, the locking device may set the disconnected state of the charging connector and the charging inlet to an unlocked state.
Such a conventional charging connector locking system determines a failure of the charge controller and the locking device based only on the monitoring results of the corresponding devices, without any additional operation, and thus it may determine the occurrence of a simple error that may be easily solved as a failure.
As a result, the conventional charging connector locking system may not propose a solution with respect to a simple error, and may unconditionally determine the error as a failure.